Covenant vs Alien vs Predator
by Luke Coz
Summary: When a group of Covenant soldiers are sent to look for an artifact in a Forerunner temple on a moon circling Halo, they soon discover that the temple is infested by Aliens. WhenPredators arrive,they must teamup with the Predators to defeat the xenomorphs.
1. The Temple

**Hello, this is my first fan fiction. I hope you enjoy it. It takes place during the events of Halo: Combat Evolved.**

The Phantom flew towards the desolate moon. The moon was just big enough to have an atmosphere. It circled very close to the ancient ring-world, Halo. The Covenant ship was going there to search for an ancient artifact left by the Forerunners in a mysterious temple-like structure.

"The artifact is said to be on this moon," said an Elite. He was a Special Ops Elite, clad in black armor. Before him were eight other Special Ops Elites and tweleve Special Ops Grunts. The Elite's name was 'Osoolazumme.

'Osoolazumme looked at his Elites. He was the highest ranking Sangheili, as the Elites are known as in their own language, there, so the other Elites were all under his command. "We will go into the Forerunner temple and search for the precious artifact," said 'Osoolazumme. He raised his fist in the air. The other Covenant cheered.

_I will not fail the Prophets, _thought 'Osoolazumme, _I will find the artifact. _

"This mission easy!" said a Grunt.

"It may seem easy," said 'Osoolazumme, "But it may get hard. The temple is unexplored. We do not know what lies behind it's walls,"

The Phantom landed. The Covenant warriors dropped out of the ship.

'Osoolazumme activated his Energy Sword. The other Elites were armed with Plasma Rifles and Covenant Carbines. The Grunts carried Fuel Rod Guns and Neddlers.

They approaced the ancient Forerunner building. It was massive.

"Engage active camouflage," said 'Osoolazumme. The Covenant soldiers turned invisible.


	2. Two parasites

**Chapter 2**

The Covenant warriors walked towards the ancient temple. They came to the large doors.

"They're locked," said an Elite named 'Ferdonnewaldae.

'Osoolazumme noticed a holo panel. He scrolled his fingers across the panel. The huge doors opened with a loud creek. They entered the ancient structure.

The walls, floor, and ceiling were just like any other Forerunner architecture. It was a little dark, but light enough to see where you were going.

"What, exactly, is this artifact we're looking for, 'Osoolazumme?" asked 'Ferdonnewaldae.

"I'm not exactly sure," said 'Osoolazumme, "But I think it might be a weapon of some sort,"

They walked down the winding corridors. I was quiet, the place seemed to be uninhabited.

"Hey, look at this!" said 'Elunumanferdae, an Elite who had been 'Osoolazumme's friend a long time. The others rushed over to see what it was.

It was the corpse of some long-dead humanoid creature. The body was almost fossilized. The creature's chest cavity was torn open, almost like something had burst through it. Lying nest to the corpse was the long-dead body of some sort of spider-like creature.

"This body isn't Covenant and it isn't human either," said 'Osoolazumme. He looked at the dead spider-creature. "and I have no idea what that thing is,"

'Ferdonnewaldae looked at the body of the humanoid creature. "Something ripped through this body's ribcage," he said.

"Let's move on," said 'Osoolazumme, "Whatever happened here, it happened a long, long time ago,"

The Covenant warriors moved on. The winding corridors seemed to go on forever.The structure looked even bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. They're were lots of inscriptions and pictures etched onto the walls. They eventually came to a door.

"Is this door locked?" asked 'Ferdonnewaldae.

Before 'Osoolazumme could answer, he smelt something. "I reconize that stench," he said. Suddenly, the door knocked down and dozens of small squid-like creatures burst out.

"The Flood!" yelled 'Osoolazumme. The Covenant warriors fired at the Infection Forms with their plasma guns. The little parasites were quickly taken care of.

"Any casualities?" asked 'Ferdonnewaldae after all the Flood were gone.

"Only one Grunt," said 'Osoolazumme, "and that isn't a big loss," 'Osoolazumme didn't think they would encounter the Flood. But they did.

'Osoolazumme looked around. They had come to some sort of chamber. Two hallways leading from this chamber led into two more chambers. On the wall was an inscription, written four times, each time in a different language. One of the languages he could understand.

"This inscription says that this temple was used to contain and study two different types of parasitic life-forms," said 'Osoolazumme, "and it says that the second parasite is just as deadly as the Flood,"

"_Two_ parasites?" said 'Ferdonnewaldae, "I thought one parasite was bad enough! What's the other parasite?"

"I don't know," said 'Osoolazumme, "But I'm sure we'll find out eventually,"


	3. Facehugger

**Chapter 3**

'Osoolazumme and his soldiers went down the hallway leading to the next chamber. By now, the soldiers' active camouflage had worn off. Not that it would have made much of a difference.

The floor of the next chamber was covered with Flood Infection Forms. The Flood swarmed towards the Covenant warriors. They fired at the little parasites with their plasma guns, watching as they popped. But this time there were much more of them. Several jumped onto 'Osoolazumme, popping on his tough armor, but bringing down his shield a notch.

A pair of fat Flood Carrier Forms suddenly dropped from a hole in the wall in front of 'Ferdonnewaldae. The Carrier Forms were much larger than Infections and very bulbous. When near an enemy, they will blow up and scatter Infection Forms around. 'Ferdonnewaldae shot the closest one with his Covenant Carbine. It blew up, sending Infection Forms flying out of it, and causing 'Ferdonnewaldae's shield to go down. The Carrier behind it also blew up. The others took care of the Infection Forms while 'Ferdonnewaldae's shield recharged.

'Osoolazumme cleaned up the remaining Infection Forms. Two more hallways led from this chamber. One led to another path; the other led to a door. Curious, they chose to go find out what was on the other side of the door.

It was another chamber.

This chamber was massive; much larger than any of the other chambers combined. Covering the chamber's ground were hundreds of eggs. Each egg was about three feet tall and dark brown in color.

The Covenant soldiers looked at each other.

"They look like eggs," said 'Osoolazumme, "but of what?"

"I'll see what these are," said 'Ferdonnewaldae. He went up to one of the eggs. He stuck his face close to the egg to inspect it. He felt it's leathery and somewhat slimy texture.

The top of the egg opened, just like the pedals of a flower. 'Ferdonnewaldae opened his mandibles in surprise.

The egg's insides were very organic. "You should come look at this," said 'Ferdonnewaldae. Suddenly, a spider-like creature jumped out of the egg and attached itself to 'Ferdonnewaldae's face.

'Ferdonnewaldae clawed at his face, trying to pull the spider-thing off.

"Hold on!" said 'Osoolazumemme. He rushed over to 'Ferdonnewaldae. "Relax. I'll try topull this thing off,"'Osoolazumme tried to pull the parasite off his fellow soldier's face, but as he pulled, the thing's tail just wrapped tighter around 'Ferdonnewaldae'sneck.

"Let me help," said another Elite. His name was Poll'Endante.

Poll'Endante pulled off 'Ferdonnewaldae's Elite helmet and threw it aside. He pulled out a small blade and started to cut off one of the creature'scrab-like legs.

Acid blood squirted from the cut Poll'Endante made, almost hitting a nearby Grunt.The blood hit the ground, burning a hole in the floor.

"It has acid for blood!"exclaimed 'Osoolazumme. The Elite sighed. He had noticed that this spider-parasite was just like the dead thing they had seen earlier. "It looks like we're just going to hope this thing comes off by itself. Poll'Endate and Yoro Ulonde, take turns carrying 'Ferdonnewaldae until this thing comes off,"

Poll'Endante nodded and put 'Ferdonnewaldae's arm over his shoulder.

This was going to be a long mission.


	4. Marines

Chapter 4

The _Pillar of Autumn _was under attack!

Private Ronald fired at a blue-armored Elite with his MA5B assault rifle. The Elite howled in pain before it fell to its knees and collapsed.

"Yeah! I got one of the big ones!" said Ronald.

"Good work," said Corporal Jake as he took down a couple of Grunts with short controlled bursts from his rifle.

Ronald ducked as blue and green plasma bolts whizzed by him. He threw a frag grenade into a group of Grunts and watched as the bodies flew.

The ground shook as plasma blasts from a Covenant warship slammed into the _Autumn_'s hull.

"Let's go," said Jake, "the lifeboats are launching!" The two marines ran down ship's halls, avoiding the large red-armored Elites and shooting any Grunts that got in their way.

Ronald almost ran into a tall man in green armor. He watched as the armored man, SPARTAN-117, the Master Chief, effortlessly took down a red-armored Elite with his assault rifle.

They ran past the Spartan and towards the lifeboats.

Suddenly a plasma bolt hit Jake in the leg. The Corporal fell to the ground.

"No!" yelled Ronald. He ran over to Jake.

"Go on without me," said Jake, "that's an order,"

"No way," said the Private. He put Jake's arm over his shoulder and dragged the Corporal towards the lifeboat. Blue and green plasma bolts whizzed past their heads.

Ronald threw Jake into the lifeboat. He jumped in right before a bolt of super-heated plasma hit his head.Four other marines were already in the lifeboat. One of them, a semi-tall, muscular man with a mustache sat next to Ronald.

The hatch closed.

The pilot launched the escape craft.

Ronald grabbed a nearby medical kit. He pulled out a bandage and wrapped it around Corporal Jake's leg. Jake groaned in pain.

"This should stop the bleeding," said Ronald.

Ronald looked out the of the pod's front window. He could see the huge gas giant, Threshold, and the strange ring-shaped object. They were headed toward the ring.

Suddenly, a plasma blast from a Covenant warship hit the back of the pod, sending it careening off-course and towards the nearby moon, Basis.

"Shit!" yelled the pilot, "we're heading straight for the moon!"

All the marines had their eyes closed, ready for impact, except the marine with the mustache sitting next to Ronald. He kept smoking a cigar and polishing his M90 shotgun.

The escape pod entered the moon's atmosphere. Ronald wondered why the moon had an atmosphere, but he knew it didn't matter at the moment. The lifeboat crashed on the surface, spinning on the ground for several yards, then stopped. Ronald blacked out.

When Ronald woke he saw the man with the mustache and the cigar leaning over him.

"He's awake," said the marine. He helped Ronald get up. They stepped out of the lifeboat.

Ronald looked in awe at the huge structure. It looked like some sort of temple or something.

"I think this temple-structure is making the air breathable," said Corporal Jake, "but I don't know how,"

"Let's go in," said Ronald. The UNSC marines walked towards the temple, ready for anything.

* * *

The Predator spacecraft moved silently towards the ring. The craft was completly cloaked, and had radar-shielding, so the nearby ships ingaged in battle wouldn't notice it was there.

Dell'Nodi looked proudly at his trophy case. He had many skulls: human skulls, the skull of a strange lizard-like creature, and even the skull of a Covenant Elite. But the trophy he prized the most was the massive skull of an Alien Queen. He had had only one plasma shot left when he faced the Queen.The Queen _kainde amedha_ was the toughest creature he had ever faced. He had the scars to prove it.

Three other yautja walked towards Dell'Nodi.

"Is that the right moon?" asked one of the Predators.

Dell'Nodi nodded. He put on some body armor, grabbed a spear, put on his shoulder-mounted plasmacaster, and placed his mask over his face.

It was time to hunt.


	5. If it bleeds, we can kill it

**Hello, everyone. I know you probably didn't expect marines to be in this story. It was meant to be somewhat of a surprise, and I had to have at least one brief appearance of John (the Master Chief) in this story (sorry, we probably won't see him again. He escaped on a different lifeboat)****. This is still Covenant vs. Alien vs. Predator, and the Covenant soldiers are still the main characters. **

* * *

**Chapter 5**

'Osoolazumme and his soldiers stood in the egg chamber. They had to find a way around the eggs and get to the other side of the chamber, where they could see a door.

"Okay, we'll walk along the edge of the chamber and hope that we don't wake up another one of those things inside those eggs," said 'Osoolazumme.

They walked along the chamber's edge, staying as far away from the eggs as possible.

A Grunt suddenly tripped over his own feet, let out a small squeak,and landed in front of an egg. The Grunt looked up to see the egg start to open. He opened his mouth in terror under his methane mask.

The Elite 'Elunumanferdae shot the spider-parasite with his plasma rifle before it jumped. He then walked over to the Grunt, picked him up by his neck, and shook the little alien violently.

"You worthless little annoyance," said 'Elunumanferdae.

"Put the Unggoy down, 'Elunumanferdae," said 'Osoolazumme.

'Elumanferdae dropped the Grunt and continued to walk along the chamber wall.

'Osoolazumme saw one of the eggs start to open. He reached for his energy sword. The parasite jumped. 'Osoolazumme could see the parasite's long, tube-like proboscis extend as it jumped at his face.

'Osoolazumme cut the spider-thing down the middle with a swift thrust of his energy sword. It feel to the ground, twitched a little, then stopped moving.

They finally reached the door. They let out a sigh of relief.

They walked through the door.

* * *

The marines the temple. The doors were open, like someone had already been there. They looked at each other, shrugged, and entered. 

The lighting was somewhat dark, but not too dark. The marines turned on their guns' flashlights anyway.

There were ten marines altogether: Corporal Jake, Private Ronald, the musuclar man with a mustache named Sergeant Buddy, the man that piloted the lifeboat was Corporal Theodore, and the other men, all Privates, were: Fredrick, Joey, Jason, Kerby, and Moe. There was also one girl, Private Kelly.

Sergeant Buddy, the man in charge, led them through the strange hallways.

"Keep your eyes peeled," said Buddy.

Private Jason heard a squishing sound. "What the hell was that?" he said, pointing his assault rifle in the direction of the noise.

"Probably nothing," said Sergeant Buddy, "There's nothing in her--"

Suddenly, a swarm of Flood Infection Forms swarmed from out of the shadows towards them.

The marines fired their weapons, taking out a lot of them. But they just kept coming.

Then something, humanoid in appearance, jumped from the wall in front of the marines. It looked like a zombie. They could tell it used to be human, but was deformed and rotten-looking. It must have been infected.

The marines fired at it bringing it down. They then took care of the rest of the squid-like infection forms.

They let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, the Combat Form jumped up and wacked Private Moe in the back of the head with its whipping arm, killing him. Moe feel to the ground, his head resting in a pool of his own blood.

Sergeant Buddy shot the zombie-monster with his shotgun, blowing a hole in its chest and killing the parasite inside it.

Buddy leaned down by Private Moe's dead body. "Poor guy," he said, "he had so much potential,"

Corporal Jake walked up to Corporal Theodore.

"It was strange that those squid-things didn't attack you, Theodore," said Jake.

"I guess they didn't like my scent," said Theodore with a slight grin.

Jake turned and walked away. Theodore looked down to see a lone Infection Form scurry by his feet. He gently picked the parasite up, reached in his vest and pulled out a glass jar, and carefully put the Infection Form in the jar.

He smiled, then ran to catch up with the others.

* * *

The four pods launched from the Predator spacecraft entered the moon's atmosphere. They landed on the surface with a thud. 

One of the pods' doors opened. The yautja Dell'Nodi stepped out.

Dell'Nodi was over seven feet tall. He wore body armor on his upper torso, his waist, and his legs and gauntlets on his wrists. The mask he wore had a symbol written in the blood of the Hard Meat, the Aliens. Long braids hung down to his shoulders and he wore a necklace with the skulls of different alien species on it. He held a decorated spear with a human skull impailed on it. He was a very experienced hunter. He had been on many, many hunts and had claimed many skulls.

The other pods opened and three more yautja stepped out. They were somewhat experienced at the hunt, but not nearly as experienced as Dell'Nodi. Their names were Kit'noto, Yuloe're, and Bat'ana. Their helmets weren't as ornate as Dell'Nodi's.

Dell'Nodi walked towards the temple. "This structure is home to Hard Meat," said Dell'Nodi, "let us hunt,"

The Predators approaced the temple. Dell'Nodi noticed a human vessel of some some sort, crashed by the temple. Perhaps an escape craft?

"Oomans are here," said Dell'Nodi. If they were armed, they would make worthy trophies.

They entered the temple. Dell'Nodi scanned the area with his thermal vision. There didn't appear to be anything nearby.

Suddenly, a deformed zombie-like creature jumped from the darkness and landed on Dell'Nodi.

The Predator threw the Combat Form off him. It got up and jumped at him again. Dell'Nodi side-stepped it, extened his wrist blades,and cut off the its head.

The Combat Form didn't even seem to notice it was headless. It turned around and charged at him again.

Dell'Nodi impailed the Combat Form with his spear, killing the Infection Form inside it, then threw the dead body aside.

"This thing looks like it was once an ooman," said Bat'ana, looking at the dead Flood Combat Form.

"Yes, it looks like it was infected by something," said Dell'Nodi.

They activated their cloaking, similar to the Covenant's, and moved on.

* * *

The Covenant soldiers entered the next room. It was a long, wide hallway. The walls, ceiling, and floor was coated in some sort of slimy resin-like material. The walls looked like they were covered with intestines. They realized they were in some sort of nest, or hive.

"This place is strange," said 'Poll'Endante, who was still carrying 'Ferdonnewaldae.Thealien warriors moved on.

'Osoolazumme noticed some human skeletons plastered to the wall with the resin. Theirribcages wereburst open, justlike thedead humanoid creature they had seen earlier.

"These human scum got what they deserved," said 'Osoolazumme, "how dare they enter this sacred temple. They havebrought filth to this holy place of the Forerunners,"

They walked on. The constant slime dripping from the walls gave a creepy feel.

"I have a bad feeling about this," said 'Elunumanferdae.

As he said that a long skeletal tail with a sharp stinger came out of a hole in the ceiling and hung down behind 'Elunmanferdae. Before anyone could warn the Elite, the tail's stinger pierced 'Elunmanferdae's back. The tail went right through the Covenant warrior's armor. The tail lifted the dying Sangheili off the ground and towards the hole in the ceiling. 'Elunmanferdae looked up to see an eyeless banana-shaped head poke out of the hole. Clear saliva dripped from the creature's jaws. It opened its mouth to reveal two sets of large, metallic teeth. The secondary jaw extended out of the mouth with great force and punctured Elumanferdae's cranium, spilling purple blood on the ground.

The Covenant fired their plasma weapons at the creature. It hissed loudly as the plasma bolts whizzed by its head. Then it slithered back up the hole, taking 'Elunmanferdae's dead body with it.

'Osoolazumme felt great sorrow for 'Elunmanferdae. He was a friend, and the lives of his Elites mattered.

This new enemy was going to be difficult to kill.


	6. New blood

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been busy and we had to get our computer fixed because it froze. **

**Look for my new story, Predator: Invisible Killer. It's in the Aliens/Predator section in the Movies catagory. Please read and review that story if you get the chance. **

**

* * *

**

The creatures kept on coming, literally crawling out of the walls. The firing of the plasma weapons must have woke them upfrom hibernation or something.

One of the creatures jumped in front of 'Osoolazumme. It was almost as tall as him andwas blackish grey in color and covered in slime. Its body looked almost like a human skeleton and its large eyeless head held a mouthfull of sharp teeth. It looked somewhat reptilian and somewhat insectoid. It snarled and hissed.

'Osoolazumme cut it in half with his energy sword. Its acid blood sprayed on the Elite, causing his sheild to go down completely.

'Osoolazumme ran to a corner to let his sheild recharge. He looked at the ground to see the top half of the creature crawling towards him. He finished it of with multiple blasts from his plasma rifle.

Another alien jumped onto 'Osoolazumme from the ceiling. The creature pinned 'Osoolazumme to the ground. The Elite watched as the "bug" opened its mouth and began to extend its secondary jaw, trying to bite a hole in his brain.

'Osoolazumme punched the creature in the jaw. It screeched in pain. The Elite threw it off him, sending it flying a few yards.

The alien got up, let out an loud hiss. It was pissed.

'Osoolazumme was about to activate his energy sword when the alien ran towards him and whipped the weapon out of his hand with a swift strike of its long, whip-like tail. The the creature head-butted 'Osoolazumme with its huge head, making the Elite fall to the ground. It pulled back its large cranium and let out a horrible scream.

It jumped at 'Osoolazumme. The Elite activated a plasma grenade and threw it onto the alien in mid-air. It stuck to the creature's head. It let out a scream of fury. Then it blew up, sending body parts flying in all directions.

A small amount of acid blood sprayed onto 'Osoolazumme, but he ignored it. He picked up his energy sword and went to help the others.

Poll'Endante fought with one of the aliens. It had pinned him to the ground with its sharp claws and was about to rip his face off.

A swift swipe of 'Osoolazumme's energy sword cut the alien's head off.

Poll'Endante got up, throwing aside the alien's dead body. "Thanks," he said.

'Osoolazumme nodded. He diced another alien with his sword and dodged the acid gore.

After a while the aliens finally realized that the Elites weren't going to be easily killed and retreated back into the walls.

'Osoolazumme had almost considered retreating himself, which the Covenant almost never do, but decided not to. He looked at the battlefield. Acid burns covered the ground. Over half the Grunts were dead and three Elites had died.

'Osoolazumme looked at 'Ferdonnewaldae, who they had to put down to battle. During the battle the parasite had come off his face.

'Ferdonnewaldae got up. "What happened?" he asked.

"Well, something attached to your face and you were out cold for a while," said 'Poll'Endante, "But you look fine now,"

"Just some mild chest pain, that's all," said 'Ferdonnewaldae. 'Osoolazumme tossed him a plasma pistol.

They realized that they were only at the entrance of the alien hive.

"This entire level must be the hive or nest of these things," said 'Osoolazumme. They continued, knowing many horrors awaited.

* * *

The marines continued through the temple. Private Fredrick thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He walked up to Sergeant Buddy.

"Sir," he said, "I think I saw something move over there, sir,"

"Go check it out," said Buddy, "and take some buddies if you want,"

Fredrick nodded. He pointed to Joey, Jason and Kirby to follow him. The four soldiers slowly walked over to the place Fredrick said he saw something.

They looked around. "There's nothing here," said Joey.

"We don't know that," said Fredrick, "it could be an invisible Elite,"

They heard a chirping noise. They pointed their assault rifles in the direction of the noise. They looked around. Nothing. They lowered their guns.

Suddenly a bright blue burst of plasma shot from thin air and hit Private Kirby in the chest. Kirby fell to the ground with a huge smoldering hole in his chest. The other marines yelled in horror.

Fredrick looked towards the direction of the plasma blast just in time to see a pair of bright yellow eyes flash and then disappear.

Fredrick fired his assault rifle in the general direction of the attacker. "Eat this you god damn bastard!" he yelled.

A spear flew from out of nowhere and impailed Fredrick to the wall. Fredrick fired one more shot before he coughed up some blood and died.

The two remaining soldiers, Joey and Jason, fired their guns in all directions in their panic.

An invisible fist suddenlypunched Joey in the chest, breaking most of his ribs and sending him flying into a nearby wall.

Jason could see the outline of the camoufladged creature. It was humanoid in appearance, about the size of an Elite. But this was no Elite.

Jason watched as the creature uncloaked. It had long braids that hung down to its back. It wore a mask over its face. It looked like a tribal warrior.

A pair of blades extended from its wrist gauntlet. Jason backed away as it approaced him. It punched him in the face, breaking his jaw. Then it stabbed the blades into his gut. He let out a scream of pain and died.

It turned towards Joey. It took out some sort of hand-held weapon and pointed it at Joey. A metal dart-like projectile shot from the Speargun and hit Joey in the head.

* * *

**An hourlater.**

Sergeant Buddy was getting tired of waiting. "Kelly, go find those idiots," he said. Kelly nodded and ran off.

After a few moments Kelly returned. She looked like she had seen something terrible.

"Did you find them?" asked Buddy.

"I_ think_ so," said Kelly.

The other marines followed Kelly to where the four marines were last seen.

Hanging from theceiling were four skinned human bodies. Blood was splattered on the ground and wall.

"Oh my God," said Ronald.

"Could the Covenant have done this?" asked Jake.

"No," said Buddy, "I don't think so. I've never heard of the Covenant _skinning_ people,"

"Then this is something new," said Theodore. He seemed more interested than horrified.

The marines walked away from the gory scene. Whatever had done this, they hoped they didn't see it again.


	7. Allies

**Chapter 7**

The Covenant soldiers went deeper into the alien hive. The slimy resin got thicker as they went further into the nest.

"Remember why were are here," said 'Osoolazumme, "we must find the artifact,"

"Look out!" yelled the Elite named Yoro Ulonde as an alien jumped onto 'Osoolazumme. He wrestled with the creature, punching it and keeping its mouth away from his face. The others tried to help, but they couldn't get a clear shot at it. The alien hissed and snarled and snapped its jaws.

Suddenly the alien stopped fighting. It let go of 'Osoolazumme and turned around. It hissed at an unseen enemy.

'Osoolazumme got up. He could see what it was hissing at. Four cloaked figures stood nearby.

The alien jumped at the nearest camoufladged figure. The figure looked at the alien, like it was aiming a weapon at it. Three red dots appeared on the alien's abdomen. A blue ball of plasma shot from the figure's shoulder, blowing the alien in half.

The figure uncloaked itself. The yautja Dell'Nodi walked over to his kill. He pulled out an acid-proff blade and cut off the alien's head. He picked up the large cranium lifted it in the air, let out a howl of victory, and strapped the long skull to his back with a rope.

The other Predators uncloaked. They turned towards the Covenant warriors.

Dell'Nodi aimed his plasmacaster at 'Osoolazumme. Three red dots moved up from 'Osoolazumme's chest to his forehead.

"You're outnumbered, hunter," said 'Osoolazumme, activating his energy sword,"you can't win. Don't fight us," 'Osoolazumme had heard about these beings before, but he had never actually seen one. He heard the called themselves the yautja and they hunted other creatures for sport.

Dell'Nodi lowered his plasmacaster and turned towards the three other Predators. He talked to them in the yautja language. Then he turned towards 'Osoolazumme. "We will let you join us on a hunt, Sangheili," said the yautja in the Covenant language, "but you must first tell us why you are here," Dell'Nodi had hunted Covenant long enough to have picked up a lot of their language.

"We are here to search for an ancient artifact," said 'Osoolazumme, "the Prophets, our religious leaders, have sent probes into this place. They say that there is an artifact in here, and it can be used to help defeat the human race,"

"I have hunted here before," said Dell'Nodi, "and I do remember one strange object, near the middle of this structure. I will show you where it is,"

Dell'Nodi then looked towards 'Ferdonnewaldae. He walked over to 'Ferdonnewaldae, his naginata spear pointed at the Elite. The Predator switched his vison mode from infa-red to x-ray. He scanned 'Ferdonnewaldae. He could see the alien embryo curled up inside the Elite's chest cavity.

Dell'Nodi raised his naginata in the air, about to stab the weapon into 'Ferdonnewaldae's chest. Seeing this, 'Ferdonnewaldae pointed his plasma gun at the yautja.

'Osoolazumme stepped between the two warriors before Dell'Nodi could strike.

"What are you doing?" 'Osoolazumme yelled at Dell'Nodi.

"He has one inside him," said the Predator, "He must be destroyed. He's going to die anyway,"

"No," said 'Osoolazumme, "I won't let you kill one of my soldiers,"

Another Predator, named Kit'noto, walked over to them. He was slightly shorter than Dell'Nodi, but still was very tall. He was the youngest yautja there but was still a good hunter. He held a combi-stick in his right hand and a speargun in his left. He had once been one of Dell'Nodi students.

"Dell'Nodi's right," said Kit'noto, "we should kill him, and the kainde amedha inside him, now, painlessly, so he won't die in misery later,"

"No!" said 'Osoolazumme, "I won't allow it! There might be away to save him. I can't let you do it!"

Dell'Nodi lowered his spear. "Have it your way," he said. He turned towards a passageway leading out. "Let's go,"

The Covenant soldeirs followed the Predators through the passageway.

* * *

Gur'ge the Grunt hated his job. He went on this mission expecting it to be an easy mission with little or no danger. He was wrong. 

The nightmare creatures had killed almost all of his friends. The only reason he survived the attack was because he ran and hid! He was scared out of his wits. He also didn't trust these "yautja" folks.

He walked through the passageway, his neddler ready to fire at a nightmare creature if he saw one. He tripped over his own feet, falling flat on his face.Two other Grunts laughed at him. He cursed at them, waving his fist in the air.

He got up on his feet. He noticed a smooth, banana-shaped object nearby. He slowly walked towards it. It rose up, revealing itself to be the head of a nightmare creature. The alien loomed over the Grunt, its the sharp spines on its back glistening with slime. It snarled and opened its mouth.

Gur'ge knew he was doomed. He closed his eyes and fired his needler at the creature's neck. Dozens of pink, explosive needles went into the alien's throat. It hissed in anger. Then its head blew off.

Gur'ge opened his eyes. _Am I dead yet? _he thought. He looked over to see the headless body of the nightmare creature lying on the ground. He couldn't believe it. He was the only Grunt so far that killed one of these things.

One of the Predators walked over to the Grunt. Gur'ge cowered in the large warrior's shadow. The Predator picked up the head of the alien.

"Did you do this?" asked the Predator. Gur'ge nodded.

The Predator pulled out a rope and tied the alien head to Gur'ge's back. The Predator nodded and walked off towards the others.

Gur'ge tried to run to catch up, but the largealien head on his backmade him lose balance and fall over. He got up and waddled to the others.

* * *

The marines walked further into the temple, blasting away Flood Infection Forms as they went. 

Sergeant Buddy suddenly stepped in a pool of a sticky, slimy liquid. He lifted up his boot to see the slime dripping off it. "What the hell is this stuff?" he yelled.

Theodore rushed over. He stuck his finger in the pool of slime. "There are xenomorphs here," Theodore said.

"Xeno-what?" said Buddy.

"Xenomorph," explained Theodore, "A parastic life-form that breeds within a human host. Very deadly,"

"How the hell do you know that?" asked Jake, "You're a marine, not a scientist,"

Theodore ignored Jake. They continued through the corridors.

They soon came to another room. Dozens of infection forms, combat forms, and carrier forms were there. They noticed the marines.

They infections swarmed first, followed by the carriers and combats. The marines fired their weapons, but many infection forms got through. One jumped onto Ronald. He screamed, dropping his weapon. He tried to pry the parasite off his chest, but it hung on with its tentacles. Ronald finally pulled the infection off his screaming buddy.

A combat form jumped at Buddy, but he blew it away with his shotgun. He noticed the shotgun was good against these bastards. Two more jumped next to him, but they met a similar fate.

Kelly blew away a carrier form with her MA5B. Some infection forms swarmed towards her but soon afterward were also blasted apart.

Jake mowed down a combat form. It fell to the ground. A nearby infection form scurried into the combat form's chest cavity. The zombie-thing got up, reanimated. It whacked Jake's arm. Jake screamed in pain, but managed to take it down again with his assault rifle.

Soon the whole ground was covered with yellowish-green blood. A few remaining infection forms surried into a nearby hole.

Ronald looked at Jake. "You're bleeding," he said, looking at where the combat form hit him.

"I ain't got time to bleed," said Jake (Predator quote).

The marines moved to the next room. It was darker than the other room, and somewhat bigger too. The same slime substance they had seen before covered the walls.

They heard a hiss. They looked over to where thay had heard the noise.

An alien jumped from the shadows. It jumped at Buddy. He fired his shotgun into the creature. It hardly slowed it down. The other marines fired their assault weapons at it, finally killing it.

"What a weird beast," said Buddy, kicking it with his boot.

Theodore looked at it. _We must be near the hive _he thought. They moved on.


	8. Warriors of the Prophets

**Chapter 8**

'Osoolazumme' and his soldiers followed the four Predators through the alien hive.

"How much longer until we find the artifact?" asked 'Osoolazumme.

"Not soon," hissed Dell'Nodi, "First we have to find a way out of the hive. Then we have to journey to the temple's center. The Hard Meat is probably spread throughout the temple by now, on a killing rampage,"

That wasn't good news. There was no telling how many of those creatures were in this place, probably hundreds, even thousands, and once they all woke up they wouldn't be very happy.

'Ferdonnewaldae coughed. He collapsed onto one knee and clutched his chest. The others looked at him.

"I'm okay," said the doomed Elite, "I'm fine,"

"I could end the pain now," said Kit'noto, pointing his speargun at 'Ferdonnewaldae.

'Ferdonnewaldae got up. "No thanks," he said, pushing the speargun away from his face.

"Big scary thing!" a Grunt yelled suddenly, pointing towards the shadows.

An alien seemed to melt out of the darkness. It lept.

Dell'Nodi locked onto the xenomorph. Three red bars formed into a triangle over his target on his helmet's vison. A bright pulse of plasma shot from his shoulder cannon, incinerating the bug. The alien's smoking body parts fell to the ground.

"You are great warriors," said 'Osoolazumme, looking at the xenomorph's remains, "Your kind should join the Covenant. We need great fighters like you,"

"I don't think so," said Dell'Nodi, "I've seen your ships glass entire planets. There is no sport in killing billions of defenseless oomans.The Covenant has no honor,"

'Osoolazumme, upset with the Predator's answer, clicked his mandibles in agitation. "Fine," said the Elite, "tell me if you change your mind,"

* * *

The Queen stirred. 

Something was killing her children. She sat in the middle of the largest chamber in the temple, surrounded by eggs and the alien drones that tended to her. The massive eggsack attached to her abdomen produced another egg, which was moved aside by a drone so a new one could come. She moved her massive head from side to side. Goo dripped from her tooth-filled jaws. She let out a long, loud hiss.

Three aliens crawled towards her. They were Praetorians; second in command of the hive only to the queen herself. They were larger than normal drones and had a different head crest. They were the queen's royal guards.

The Queen let out a low growl and gestured to a pathway with her huge cranium.

The three Praetorians ran out through the pathway.

* * *

'Osoolazumme and his squad followed Dell'Nodi and his yautja. 

"I haven't had a good challenge in long while," Dell'Nodi told 'Osoolazumme, "The humans we encountered earlier weren't very hard to overcome,"

"There are humans here?" exclaimed 'Osoolazumme in a surprised voice.

"Yes," said Dell'Nodi, "We saw some Soft Meat not too long ago. We made trophies of them,"

_Humans? Here? _'Osoolazumme thought, _I wonder if there are any left. If I see them I will show them my energy sword's blade._

Dell'Nodi looked around a corner. He held out his hand, telling the others to stop.

"There are two aliens on the other side of this corner. Walk silently and activate your camoufladge. The Hard Meat are known to be able to see our camoufladge, but sometimes it works,"

The Covenant and Predators activated their camo and silently walked around the corner.

Two Alien Drones had captured a victim and were starting to glue it to the wall with the resin they secrete. The victim, a short extraterrestrial with grey skin, a large, round head and big bug-like eyes who had had the sad misfortune to crashland on this moon somehow, was only half alive. His large eyes must have been able to see well because he noticed the camoufladged warriors. He was able to utter the words_,"He-help me-ee, save, please, sa-save me-mee . . ."_ But these words sounded like gibberish to the Covenant and Predators.

Once the victim was secure, the two aliens watched as a nearby egg started to open. The victim let out a cry of horror before the facehugger jumped out and latched onto its face.

They had been able to sneak past the aliens for a while, but a foolish Grunt, armed with a Fuel Rod Gun, panicked.He fired the Fuel Rod at the aliens. The giant green ball of energy hit the floor next to the two bugs. One alien was sent flying into the wall. The other xenomorph screeched in surprise, then turned towards the direction the shot came from, growling.

Little did anyone know, but the floor where the Fuel Rod blast hit had been weakened over time from the acidic alien blood. The Forerunner metal started to crack underneath the feet of the Covenant, Predators, and Aliens.

'Osoolazumme was first to notice. "The floor is giving way!" he yelled. Before anyone could do anything, the floor caved in.

They all fell down into a semi-large room. The huge metal floor fell down after them. Half of them were on one side of the large piece of floor, and the other half on the other side. Luckily, the aliens were crushed by the giant piece of metal.

'Osoolazumme, 'Ferdonnewaldae, Gur'ge the Grunt, an Elite named De'ortel, and several other Elites and Grunts were on one side, and all four Predators, Yoro Ulonde, and some other Grunts and Elites were on the other side.

"Curses!" yelled 'Osoolazumme, pounding his fist on the large chunk of metal, "There is no way around this! Even all our strength combined couldn't move it. Curses!"

"We could try," said Dell'Nodi from the other side, "Push!"

They all pushed, but even the strength of Predators and Elites couldn't make it budge.

"There are are two passageways coming from this room. One is on our side, one is on your side," said Dell'Nodi, "We will eventually meet up again if we go through them. Let us go,"

They agreed. They both went their seperate ways.

* * *

The marines entered the next room. 

The walls were covered in the disgusting, slimy resin. The hive.

"What the hell is this stuff?" asked Private Ronald, touching the slimy resin with his pointer finger.

"Look sharp, marine," said Sergeant Buddy, his shotgun held out in front of him, ready for anything.

After walking for a while, the marines decided to sit down and have some lunch.

"Not exactly the perfect place for a picnic," said Buddy, "but it'll have to do for now,"

They sat down. Buddy pulled some pieces of bread from his knapsack. He gave one piece to each marine.

"How the hell are we going to getoff this damn moon?" said Ronald with a sigh, "The other marines are on the ring-world right now, they have no clue we're here. They assume we're dead. And according to Theodore, we're out of flares and our radio doesn't work. Right, Theodore?"

"Correct," Theodore lied.

"Maybe, if we find a way out of this temple, we can write a message in the dirt," said Kelly, "It would have to be HUGE for a Pelican Dropship to see it,"

"I don't think that would work," said Theodore.

"We'll worry about that later," said Buddy, "For now, eat,"

Corporal Jake munched on his bread and then looked towards Buddy. "You got a wife and kids at home?" he asked.

"Yeah, a wife and two kids," said the Sergeant,"You?"

"Yup. Wife and three children. Two are girls, one's a boy,"

"That means we gotta get out of here alive," said Buddy, "or at least die fighting these bastards as hard as we can,"

"Yes," agreed Jake.

Kelly looked over towards Theodore. "Are you going to eat your bread?" she asked.

"I'm not hungry. You can have it," he said, handing the bread over to Kelly.

When the marines finished, they got up and walked some more.

Theodore suddenly cut his finger on a sharp object sticking out of the wall. "Ow," he said quietly.

"Did you cut yourself?" asked Corporal Jake, "Let me see it,"

"NO!" yelled Theodore, putting his hand behind his back.

"Fine. Okay," said Corporal Jake, backing off.

Kelly felt something squish under her boot. She picked it up. It was the shed skin of something.

"Gross," she said, dropping it on the ground. She looked up to see Ronald looking at her in horror. She heard a hiss behind her. She turned around.

A drolling xenomorph stood behind her. She unslung her MA5B assault rifle and was about to fire it, but the alien knocked the rifle out of her hands with a clawed hand. She ducked as it whipped its tail at her and unholstered her sidearm, an M6D pistol. She fired it, but the bullet bounched off the bug's thick exoskeleton. She tried to run away, but the Alien grabbed her by her leg and dragged her off, screaming, through a nearby hole.

"Noooo!" cried Ronald.

"It didn't kill her right away, so that means it wants to coccon her so she can be impregnated with a baby alien," said Theodore.

"We'll find her," said Corporal Jake, "quick, we must hurry,"

Theodore looked at the finger he had cut. A drop of white android blood oozed from the small injury and ran down his arm.

* * *

'Osoolazumme and some other of his Covenant soldiers walked through the passage. They were no longer in the hive, but the aliens were already spread through the temple so they were still in danger. And there was also the Flood . . . 

The next room they came to appeared to be a huge burial chamber. In the middle of the room a a huge metal sarcophagus. It was massive, at least twenty-five feet long. Forerunner symbols were writtenon the side of the tomb. Lights blinked on and off on the top of the coffin. Typical Forerunner tech.

'Osoolazumme walked up to a holo panel next to the coffin. He scrolled his fingers across the blinking screen.

The top of the coffin was lifted into the air by a miniature gravity lift. They went over to look inside it.

Inside the sarcophagus was a very large, dead, strange looking creature. It was mummified. It was as long as four men and had a big, strange nose, kinda like an elephant's.

"I don't get it," said 'Ferdonnewaldae, "Why would the Forerunners bury this creature and keep its remains in this temple?"

"Maybe it as their friend or something," said the Elite named De'ortel.

'Osoolazumme looked over at an inscription written on the ground in front of the sarcophagus. It was written in several languages, and 'Osoolazumme could just make out what one said.

"These creatures woulduse specimensof the bugs, the aliens, to fight an ancient war, putting their eggs on enemy planets so the bugs would kill the population. The Forerunners met these "Pilots" and would trade them weapons and technology for specimens of the bugs for study. The Forerunners kept the specimens in this facility, along with the other parasite, the Flood, and would study them," read 'Osoolazumme, "This Pilot had given them the most specimens, and so was buried here when it died,"

They moved onto the next room, leaving the ancient being to rest in peace.

* * *

**I wanted to update earlier but I had to do homework and I went on vacation and had other stuff to do and blah blah blah . . .**

**Anyway, did you like this chapter? Kinda weird at the end. Yeah, the creature they found at the end of the chapter was a Space Jockey. Ya know, the dead thing they find in the spaceship in the first Alien. **

**I might or might not update for a while. Until then, see ya.**


	9. Sacrifice

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I was busy once again. Here's the next chapter.**

**

* * *

****Chapter 9**

Kelly opened her eyes. Her vison was blurred but soon cleared. She felt dizzy. Then she noticed that she was covered in some sort of slimy substence. She was plastered to the wall.

She looked around. This room was bigger than the others. She heard hissing noises around her. The bugs were everywhere, on the ground, clinging to the walls, hanging from the ceiling.

One bug, much, much larger than the others, moved its massive head towards Kelly. It had a huge pointed head crest and was attached to a large eggsac. It seemed to be examining Kelly. Steam poured from its maw as it opened its mouth.

Kelly closed her eyes. The Queen extened her secondary mouth. It didn't bite through her skull though, instead it gently touched her cheek. _What is it doing? _Kelly thought. She looked for her pistol. It was lying on the ground. She couldn't reach it.

Then she heard the sound of a facehugger moving inside its egg. She screamed in horror as the top of the egg opened, like the pedals of a flower.

* * *

'Osoolazumme, 'Ferdonnewaldae, and some other Covenant went through a passage. Gur'ge the Grunt followed about five feet behind the others, the alien skull on his back making it hard for him to catch up. 

"We should catch up with the others soon, I think," said 'Osoolazumme, his ignited energy sword held out in front of him in case something unexpected happened.

'Ferdonnewaldae suddenly coughed loudly. He grasped his chest. He groaned.

"Don't give up," said 'Osoolazumme, "You can mak--"

'Osoolazumme was interuppted by the sound of craking ribs. 'Ferdonnewaldae coughed up purple blood. The Elite ripped off his armored chestplate. His chest buldged. He dropped to his knees, moaning in agony. Blood squirted from his upper torso. Gore sprayed onto everyone. The head of an alien chestburster, purple with the Elite's blood, poked out of 'Ferdonnewaldae's ribcage.

The other Covenant were silent with astonishment and horror.

'Ferdonnewaldae fell to the ground. The chestburster slithered out of the dead Elite's body. It was not a normal xenomorph, however. It had some features similar to an Elite's. It slithered through a nearby crevice.

'Osoolazumme went over to 'Ferdonnewaldae's body. He placed the deceased Elite's plasma gun over his bloody chest. "Rest, my friend," said 'Osoolazumme.

* * *

Dell'Nodi led the other Predators and some of the Covenant soldiers through the winding halls of the Forerunner temple. 

The Elite Yoro Ulonde looked at the mighty yautja Dell'Nodi. The Predator was an impresive beast, about as tall as he was. The Elite looked at the hunter's ornate body armor and his necklace of skulls and his mask and his long dreadlocks with golden rings on them that hung down to his back. Though some of the yautja race's practices seemed somewhat primitive, these mighty warriors still weilded very advanced weapons and technology.

Yoro Ulonde's thoughts were interuppted by the familiar sound of the Flood approaching. He readied his plasma rifle. Infection forms swarmed out of a hole in the wall. Combat forms followed shortly after.

Dell'Nodi and Kit'noto extended their wristblades to their full length. Bat'ana and Yuloe're, the other two yautja, readied their combi-sticks. The Grunts nervously looked at each other, then ran towards a corner.

A wave of infection forms swarmed towards the four Predators. Two jumped at Dell'Nodi's face. He sliced it to ribbions with his wristblades. He then turned towards a combat form. The mighty Predator reached into his belt and pulled out a flat circular object. This weapon, called a Shuriken, turned into a throwing-star-like device when the surface was pressed.

Dell'Nodi threw the Shuriken. It flew through the air and sliced two Combat Forms clean in half.

The Predator Bat'ana stabbed a Combat Form with his combi-stick. He twisted and pulled out an infection form. The combat-form fell to the ground, lifeless. Bat'ana spun around. He threw his combi-stick, which impailed two combat forms against a wall.

Yoro Ulonde shot down several flood forms with his plasma rifle. He grabbed his plasma pistol sidearm in his other hand. He spun around and showered the ground with plasma, incinerating swarming infection forms.

Suddenly they heard something coming down the passageway. It sounded like more flood. A _lot_ more.

An eight-foot-high wall of infection forms burst througha passage. It was the most flood Yoro Ulonde had ever seen.

"Run!" said Dell'Nodi.

The warriors ran as fast as they could, the sound of the approacing wall of flood echoing behind them.

Bat'ana stopped.

"What are you doing?" Dell'Nodi shouted back.

"Letting you escape," replied Bat'ana, "If I have to, I'll die a warrior's death,"

Dell'Nodi hesitated for a moment, then ran away with the others.

Bat'ana turned towards the approaching flood, his combi-stick held aloft, ready to die if need be.

The infection forms swarmed around his body, clinging to the mesh netting that covered his body. The Predator twirled his weapon around, slicing up many of the squid-like parasites.

But there was too many. They piled on top of him, their barbed tentacles poking through his skin. He growled in pain. He ripped some off his body but they kept on coming.

Bat'ana flipped open the control panel on his left wrist gauntlet. He was about to activate the self-destruct device, when he remembered that he was doing this to _protect_ the others. If he activated the device, the detonation would destroy at least three fourths of the massive temple, killing the others as well. He closed the control panel and watched as the wave of flood enveloped him.

* * *

Dell'Nodi, Yoro Ulonde and the others ran around a cornor, nearly crashing into 'Osoolazumme and his group. 

"Finally," said 'Osoolazumme, "We've found you,"

"Good," said Dell'Nodi, "Where is 'Ferdonnewaldae?"

"Dead," said 'Osoolazumme, shaking his head in dispair, "One of those things came out of him. I should have trusted you. I am sorry,"

A loud hiss interuppted what Dell'Nodi was about to say. They turned around to see two large Aliens standing before them. They were quite a bit larger than the normal drone and had a kind of pointed crest on their heads.

The Praetorians growled.

Dell'Nodi and 'Osoolazumme raised their weapons.

"If we die today," said Dell'Nodi, "then let us die with honor,"

* * *

**Kinda leaves you hanging, heh?** **Sorry if some parts were a bit abrupt.**

**Stay tuned for the next chapter, coming soon!**


	10. Battle

**I'm back, did you miss me? Nope, I'm not dead. I'm really sorry I haven't updated in such a long, long time, I feel like such an ass. Its just I've been working on a bunch of other things, like my website, and I haven't had any time to work on this story. Sorry this capter is short.****

* * *

****Chapter 10**

Dell'Nodi jumped just in time to avoid a swift blow from a Praetorian's sharp tail. It hissed and swung again, and the Predator ducked, side-stepped and cut off the tail's sharp spike with his bladed spear. Acid blood sprayed from the alien's wound. It screeched and then lunged at the yautja. Dell'Nodi ducked and slid under the large alien, stabbing its belly with his wristblades. He slid out from under it just in time to avoid its deadly acid. Although his wristblades were more resistent to the alien's acid than other metals, it still did some damage to his bladed weapons. The Praetorian was wounded but not dead. It whipped it tail at the Predator again, this time spraying acid at him. He ducked and rolled and threw his spear, which missed the alien by centimeters.

'Osoolazumme fired his plasma rifle at the other Praetorian. The large alien hissed and knocked into 'Osoolazumme with its large head, sending him flying into the wall, his shield flareing. The huge alien loomed over 'Osoolzumme, its secondary jaw about to extend. 'Osoolazumme quickley grabbed his energy sword, activated it, and stabbed the energy blade into the vicious xenomorph's throat. Though injured, it wasn't dead. It screeched it pain, giving the Elite enough time to roll out of harms way and was soon back on his feet again. The xenomorph, now bleeding acid, growled in fury, and charged again at the Elite.

Yoro Ulonde tried to stop it by firing his rifle at it. It then turned its attention towards the other Elite. It growled, and quickly lashed out its tail, spearing Yoro Ulonde in the neck. The Elite gurgled and choked on his blood before the alien jerked its tail away. Yoro Ulonde's body fell to the ground, his neck spraying purple blood.

_Its time to end this_ thought Dell'Nodi. The mighty yautja warrior aimed his plasmacaster at one of the Praetorians. He fired the plasma bolt at the large alien. It hit it square on the head, blowing its cranium apart and spraying acid on the ground.

_That's one down_ thought the Predator. What the mighty hunter-warrior didn't know was that the other alien was behind him. The xenomorph had realized that the weapon on the Predator's shoulder had quickly taken down its partner, so it decided it had to get rid of it. It quickly ripped the Predator's shoulder cannon off and threw it aside. Then it lashed its tail out and knocked Dell'Nodi unconcious.

'Osoolazumme knew he had to do something; the battle was too unorganized to acomplish much. He had to take matters into his own hands. The alien's exoskeleton is tough, but if he stuck a plasma grenade to it that should kill it. He took out a plasma granade. The creature's rapid movements made it hard for the Covenant warrior to get a clear shot, but when he finally saw his oppertunity, he activated the grenade and threw it at the monster. It stuck onto the creature's abdomen. It shrieked a high-pitched howl before it was blown into bits.

'Osoolazumme went over to Dell'Nodi. The blow had knocked his helmet off. 'Osoolazumme looked at the Predator's face; he had four mandables, just like the Elites did, and his skin was somewhat scaly.He had a small wound on his forehead and a drop of luminescent green blood trickled down from the cut.

"We'll wait for him to regain conciousness," said 'Osoolazumme, "then we will continue,"

* * *

**I promise, I'll try not to take a break that long withoout telling you again. Until next time, bye.**


	11. Someone betrays, and a new ally?

**Chapter Eleven **

Corporal Jake went around the cornor, shortly followed by Sergeant Buddy. Their rifle's light illuminated the dark passages ahead of them as they searched for Private Kelly.

Theodore held a sort of hand-held tracking divice in his hand. It told them how close they were to Kelly via a tracking device in her helmet.

"It appears she is not too far away," said Theodore, "only a a few more meters,"

The marines began to quicken thier pace to a jog. Jake chould just make out the outline of an object up ahead. It looked too small to be Kelly. He ran faster towards the object.

"Oh no," said Jake, looking at the object. It was Kelly's helmet. He gently picked it up. It was covered in slime.

Buddy soon came from behind him. "Shit," said the Sergeant, "Now how the hell are we supposed to find Kelly?"

"We'll have to keep going this direction," said Theodore, "She's probably around here somewhere, cocooned in the bug's nest,"

Suddenly, Jake noticed something in Theodore's back pocket. He squint his eyes to see it better in the dark. He could swear it was a radio. He looked closer. It was!

"Theodore, you bastard!" yelled Jake, "You have a radio! Give it to me you son of a bitch!"

"No I don't," said Theodore, his expression clearly nervous, "I have no idea what you are talking about,"

Jake tackled Theodore, pinning him on the ground and punching his face. Theodore punched his fist into Jake's stomach. The punch was harder than he would expect from Theodore. Jake fell backwards and spit out some blood. Theodore got up and stood over Jake. A white, milk-like substance dripped from his mouth and forehead.

"You're a goddamn android!" yelled Jake, enraged. He reached for his M6D pistol sidearm, and fired a shot into Theodore's arm. The android fell backwards, white blood spraying from his wound.

Corporal Jake got up. "Okay robot, talk," he said, pointing his pistol at Theodore's head, "tell us why you're here, why you were hideing the radio from us, and who sent you!"

Theodore grinded his synthetic teeth. "I was put onto the _Piller of Autumn_ by the Office of Naval Intelligence, also known as the ONI, disguised as a marine to gather any unusual life-forms that could be used for a new bio-weapons project the ONI is cooking up, just in case the _Autumn_ landed on some alien planet with new creatures that would be good for their new project. When we landed here and I found out that not only is this place home to the rare and deadly xenomorph species, the creature that the ONI wants most for their project, but is also home to another unidentified parasite species that would also be good for their project. I knew I needed specimens of both species, and I'm not about to let you stop me now!"

Theodore then quickly grabbed Jake's wrist and twisted, breaking it. In his pain, Jake dropped his pistol. Theodore quickly grabbed his own sidearm, grabbed Jake around the neck, and held the gun to his head.

"I need a specimen of a xenomorph," said Theodore, "and I'm going to get it. I already have a specimen of the unidentified parasite, but I also require an individual of the other species as well. Don't force me to have to kill your friend,"

"Let him go!" yelled Private Ronald.

"No!" said Theodore, "I must complete my mission! You are expendable! I must complete my--"

A shot from an M6D pistol was heard. Theodore released his grip on Jake and fell to the ground, white android fluid covering the back of his head. Jake looked behind him to see Kelly, covered in slime, holding a pistol in her right hand.

"Did you miss me?" she said, wiping some slime from her face.

"You're alive!" said Jake, both astonished and happy, "how did you escape?"

"I had some help," she said. She gestured behind herself with her head. A sort of humming sound was soon heard from behind her, and as it came closer a floating green glowing metallic orb started to come into view.

"Hello!" said the green orb, "I am 3215 Pervasive Minor. I am Monitor of Installation 04.5. How are you?"

Soon a pair of sleek, hovering robots with flolded wing-like appendages came from behind and floated next to Pervasive Minor.

"What the hell are you?" asked Sergeant Buddy, "and what are those things? And what is Installation 04.5?"

"Well, I already told you what I am," said the monitor, "I am Monitor of Installation 04.5. These are my sentinels. Installation 04.5 is this facility, of course. It was originally meant to be a part of Installation 04, but being that it is sperate from that facility, it became its own Installation, though not nearly as big or important. We monitors and sentinels are still capable of teleporting between the two facilities, but that is the only connection between the two. This Installation serves the same purpose as the other seven Installations, except it was more or less used as a backup, used to contain 'extra' specimens of Flood, Flood we couldn't fit on the other Installations, as well as other species besides the Flood. But you reclaimers already knew that, right?"

The marines were silent for a moment, staring at each other.

"We can't be these 'reclaimers' you speak of," said Jake, "We don't know anything of what you speak. What are Flood? Are they those squid-like parasites?"

The Monitor was silent for a moment. Then he began to laugh. "You reclaimers always told great jokes," he giggled, "Too bad the last one was killed. How unfortunate. How unfortunate indeed. Though I must say, I've never had more than one reclaimer before. We stand a very good chance of making it through and finding this Installation's control room, which will send a signal to Installation 04 to activate. You see, this Installation also serves as a backup way to activate Installation 04. Follow me,"

With that, Pervasive Minor started to float away.

"We better follow him," said Buddy.

"Why?" asked Jake, "We don't know what will happen when this 'Installation' is activated! It could destroy the galaxy or something,"

"He seems nice to me," said Ronald, "I think we can trust him. C'mon!"

With that, the marines followed the glowing orb.

* * *

The Queen awoke from her slumber. She moved her massive head. Then she noticed something. One of her victims was missing! And many of her drones and soldiers were dead on the ground, killed by some laser weapon. Also, many of her eggs were destroyed! She howled. She pulled herself up hard, breaking free of the eggsac. She charged at the wall, smashing her head several times against it. After only a few tries she broke through the wall and was on the other side. She bellowed, then ran down the halls. Blood would be shed for this atrocity.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter. There will be another one sometime next month, I need time to think of what will happen next. **


	12. Queen

**Chapter 12**

Dell'Nodi slowly awoke. He got up and looked a 'Osoolazumme, who in turn looked back at him. The Predator clicked his mandables and then picked up his mask and slipped it on. He cracked his neck and picked up his spear. He looked at the dead bodies of the Praetorian aliens, now melting through the floor with their own acidic blood.

"Let's move on now," said the warrior, "We are almost half way to the place that the artifact resides. Look," The yautja pressed a button on his wrist gauntlet and a holographic image of the temple appeared. Several tiny blips near the middle of the temple were their current location. "The the artifact is here," said Dell'Nodi, pointing at the middle of the holograpic structure. He pressed a button and the hologram disappered.

Suddenly a high-pitched animalistic shriek echoed through the halls. Everyone turned their heads towards the noise. "That's not good," said Dell'Nodi.

"What is it?" asked 'Osoolazumme.

"The Hard Meat Queen is loose," said the yautja, "we must get out of here, and fast,"

Without another word they all started to run down the passages. They could hear the huge creature approach behind them, its horrible ear-splitting shrieks echoing towards them. Soon 'Osoolazumme noticed a small passageway on the right wall; just barely wide enough to fit an eight-foot Covenant Elite, so there's no way it would fit a 17-foot-tall Alien Queen. "In here," said the Sangheili, "Quick!"

They all squeezed into the passage. They could barely fit, but they managed to do so. As soon as they all got in, 'Osoolazumme saw the Queen's foot and part of her torso come into view from outside the small passage. She stopped. She seemed to be smelling the air around that area. She was much more intelligent than the normal xenomorphs, that was for sure.

Suddenly her arm reached into the passage and grabbed the Elite De'ortel's leg. De'ortel screamed in terror as the huge creature pulled him from the safety of the passageway. 'Osoolazumme grabbed De'ortel's arm in an attempt to pull him back into the passage, but he couldn't. The Queen dragged the young Elite towards herself. De'ortel fired at her with his plasma rifle, but it had little effect. The others watched as the Queen's tail stabbed through De'ortel's armor like a knife through butter. She lifted the doomed Elite towards her jaws. They couldn't see what happened next from the passage, but they could hear an Elite's scream and the crunching of bone and flesh tearing, and watched as De'ortel's upper torso fell to the ground.

"H-he-lp-e-e-m-i-ee," groaned De'ortel, who was, to everybody's great surprise, still half-alive. But that wouldn't last long. De'ortel tried to crawl back in the passage, his purple entrails dragging behind him, but was stopped by the Queen's ugly foot. Her head came down and her jaws widened and then clamped shut on the Elite's head, and with a jerk pulled it clean off. Violet gore gushed from the bloody neck-stump.

There was silence for a few minutes. Then suddenly the Queen shoved her head a few feet into the passageway. She hissed and snarled as she tried to pull herself in. The Covenant warriors fired their weapons at her, making her bleed acid on the walls but not doing damage enough to make her go away. She opened her jaws and extended her inner mouth. It lashed out with great speed and stopped just centimeters from 'Osoolazumme's face. The Elite closed his eyes and moved his head to the side.

Suddenly she retracted her inner mouth and pulled her head out of the passageway. She hissed at something outside.

'Osoolazumme decided to peak his head outside. There he saw the Queen fighting off dozens of Flood Combat Forms. The zombie creatures were ganging up on the huge xenomorph; jumping onto her back and slashing her with their whip-like arms. However, it wasn't very effective; the acid burned through the Combat Forms' arms, though they seemed to hardly noticed it. More kept on coming. Soon dozens of Alien Drones that had been hiding in the walls climbed down and started to help their Queen fight off the Flood. The Flood seemed to be driving back the xenomorphs, because of sheer numbers, although the Queen didn't seem to be losing any strength as she smashed and ripped apart her attackers.

"They're fighting over territory," said Dell'Nodi, "Usually the parasites don't fight each other, except when one species enters the other's territory. The 'Flood' creatures, as you call them, can't use the Hard Meat as hosts, nor can the Hard Meat use the Flood as hosts, so they usually leave each other alone. These fights are not very common. I know. I have hunted here before,"

"Maybe we can make our escape now, while they are distracted fighting each other," stated 'Osoolazumme.

"No, that would be foolish," grunted Dell'Nodi, "They are all on an absolute killing spree. Look. Some of them are killing their own kind, I can't tell if it's on purpose or by accident. It's too dangerous,"

"We won't need to go that way," squeaked Gur'ge, the Grunt that had killed the alien, "I think I found a way out," The Grunt pointed to a hole in the floor, which led to the next level below.

* * *

Pervasive Minor led the marines through the dimly-lit corridors, the monitor's green glow lighting the way. Every once in a while the he would chuckle to himself, bragging about his high intellect. 

"He's really starting to get on my nerves," said Corporal Jake.

"Don't YOU start complaining, Corporal," said Buddy, "These Privates are bad enough,"

Jake muttered to himself.

Soon the approaced a door. It was about fifteen feet in height, metal, with blinking Forerunner lights running up and down its sides. It was locked, and it didn't look like it was budging.

"This door is locked," said Pervasive Minor, pointing out the obvious, "I will go override the security system. I'll be right back," With that, the monitor floated away, through some sort of pipeline in the wall.

The sentinels stayed, floating around in circles above the marines' heads.

Suddenly Kelly gasped and clutched her chest, falling to one knee.

"What's wrong?" asked Jake.

"Chest pains," said Kelly, trying to smile, "nothing big,"

"Let me feel your chest,"

"What? Of course not!"

"No," said Jake, shaking his head, "It's not that at all! You see--"

"Is something wrong?" interrupted 3215 Pervasive Minor, back from overriding the door's systems.

Kelly got up. "No, nothing,"

"Good," said the monitor, floating towards the door, "follow me then,"

The door opened with a loud CHUNK, sliding into a slot in the wall. The next room they entered wasn't that big, but was definitely just as amazing as the larger rooms. The walls were covered with flashing lights, wires, circits, and other forms of Forerunner technology. All that bizarre machinery must have been what was generating the huge hologram-like teleportation system that filled up most of the room.

Jake stepped up to the swirling, neon wall that was the teleporter. He slung his rifle. He put his finger into the teleporter wall. It felt like sticking his finger into jelly. "Are we going to go into this?" the marine asked, "Where does it lead to?"

"Yes," said the monitor, "This teleporter will transport you the other side of this structure, to this Installation's control room,"

They all looked at each other.

"Let's go for it," said Buddy. They stepped up to the teleportation wall. They all took a deep breath, then walked in. It only took at the most one second for the teleporter to scramble the marines' atoms and then reassemble them on the other side. When they stepped out of the teleporter they all threw up. When they looked up, they saw a huge room. In this room was a large control panel, and behind the control panel was a deep, dark shaft that looked like it went down for thousands of miles. Floating in the middle of the shaft was a huge hologram model of the surface of the moon they were on, Basis. They could see a small model of the temple on the holographic moon's surface. Every ten seconds it would zoom in closer to the temple, showing its detail, the zoom back to the moon's surface, then zoom out further to show Basis orbiting around the gas giant Threshold, and it also showed the giant ring-world, also circling Threshold.

"Hey, were's that floating robot guy?" said Ronald, noticing that 3215 Pervasive Minor wasn't there.

Right after he said that golden rings of light suddenly appeared out of thin air. When they disappeared, Pervasive Minor and his sentinels were floating there. "We ourselves cannot pass through the teleporter wall," said the monitor, "It disrupts our circits. We use this installation's system's own teleportation grid to move around,"

Pervasive Minor floated towards the large control panel. "This panel will send a signal to Installation 04. This will activate it. It can only be succesful when this structure is aligned perfectly with Installation 04, which it is today. Only a reclaimer can activate it. This is the only way to activate Installation 04 besides the traditional way; going into the ringworld's library and retrieving the Index. This way requires no Index, but it will only work at certain times, such as today"

"What will happen when it activates?" asked Jake.

"Well, as you know, it--," started the monitor, before he was interrupted by a noise.

A door in wall opened. Out fell three Covenent Elites, about five Covenant Grunts, and three tall unidentified aliens carrying what appeared to be spears. The lead Elite, clad in black armor, got up, shook his head, then looked up to see the humans. He activated his energy sword and yelled something in an alien tongue.


	13. Trouble

**I am currently working on a revised version of this story, posted on its own webpage. Yes, I'm correcting spelling errors and adding more details (including much more graphic, blood and guts filled descriptions of certain deaths) to make it more realistic sounding, and some descriptions to make it more suspenseful, and posting on its own webpage. It's sorta like a "special edition" I guess. I guess I'm doing it because I'm kinda disappointed with this story's earlier chapters. To find it, google search "CvAvP" and you should find it.**** I will still be writing the further chapters on this site, so stay tuned! **

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* * *

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**Chapter 13**

The android known as Theodore slowly came back to life. His eye-sensors started to come on-line again. His right arm started to twitch rapidly, like some sort of spasm. He lifted his head and slowly got up, his arm still twitching. He grabbed his arm and straightened it, stopping the twitching. He reached to the back of his artificial head, feeling the large bullet-hole where the marine Kelly had shot him. He reached into the hole and pulled the bullet out. He looked at the bullet, then dropped it to the ground.

He reached into his back pocket, feeling for his radio. It wasn't there. Of course, the marines took it. _They're probably off this moon by now, inside the safe metal interior of a Pelican Dropship, on their way home_, thought Theodore_, Damn them!_ He looked at his radar. No, their vital signs were still in the vicinity of the temple, though they were far away from his location. They hadn't called in for pick-up yet. Something must have caught their attention. But what? He didn't care. All he cared about was collecting the specimens. But if he saw them again, he swore he would finish them off for good

* * *

Rounds from a MA5B assault rifle pounded into 'Osoolazumme's chestplate. His shield went down halfway. He quickly darted behind a thick pillar dotted with blinking lights and ancient symbols, made of some kind of Forerunner alloy. He fired some shots from his Plasma Rifle from behind the pillar with one hand, while still holding his activated Energy Sword in the other hand. 

The other Coveant soldiers followed 'Osoolazumme behind the piller, while firing off shots from their plasma guns towards the human enemies.

"They're outnumbered," barked 'Osoolazumme, "We will defeat them,"

* * *

Corporal Jake ducked behind a metal outcropping to avoid deadly plasma shotting towards him. He reloaded his assault rifle and fired off some shots towards his attackers. 

"I didn't expect Covenant to be here!" said Ronald, nervous, "These Covenant are a lot tougher than the ones on the _Autumn_!! What're we gonna do?"

Before Jake could tell Ronald to shut up Pervasive Minor started shouting.

"Stop this!!" whined the monitor, "Stop this immediately!! We must activate the ring!! There is not time for this foolishness!!"

The marines ignored the monitor and kept firing. Suddenly a large figure jumped onto the outcropping they were hiding behind. It was one of the spear-weilding creatures they had seen with the Covenant. Jake had assumed it must be a new Covenant, but he had never seen a Covenant like this before, weilding spear-like weapons instead of traditional plasma weapons. Was it even Covenant?

Before Jake could do anything to stop it, the creature kicked him in the face, sending him flying back. As he flew back, he hit the arm that had been injured by a Flood earlier against the wall. He screamed in pain, both from hitting his injured arm and from his now-broken nose, which was bleeding profusely. He got up a picked up his assault rifle, which hurt to do.

The creature jumped down, extended a pair of sharp blades from a sort of metal wristband, and walked over to Jake, growling softly.

* * *

Dell'Nodi picked the pathetic human up by his neck. The foolish human tried to escape his grasp. Dell'Nodi laughed to himself. How weak these humans were. He could never understand why other races feared them so much. He prepared to cut the human's throat, but suddenly a small door in the wall slid open. Everyone stopped fighting and turned their attention towards the door. 

Out of the three-foot-wide door flew several dozen sentinels. These sentinels, however, were different then the silver-colored sentinels that were seen before by the humans. These sentinels had red-colored armor, and they were slightly smaller than the silver-colored ones. The sentinels almost immediately started attacking the Covenant, yautja, and humans. The lasers these sentinels shot were green in color, not the usual orange. The humans, Covenant and Predators tried to fight back, but the sentinels were protected by almost impenetrable invisible shields. The sentinels took out each human and Covenant one by one. Soon only Predators remained, but they too were taken out.

Dell'Nodi was only left. He shot his now-damaged plasmacaster (it had been damaged by a Praetorian), but the blast was weak and was quickly absorbed by the sentinels' energy shields. They shot Dell'Nodi with their lasers. He expected to feel pain when he was shot by the laser, but he didn't. Instead of pain, he felt cold, like his insides had been turned into ice. He then lost all control of his limbs; he was paralyzed. The lasers weren't meant to kill; they were meant to immobilize a victim! Soon Dell'Nodi felt faint, and then he totally blacked out.

* * *

Dell'Nodi slowly awoke. He looked around. It was the same room, but something was different. He tried to move, but couldn't. He was awake, but was still paralyzed. He looked around to see the other yautja, Covenant and humans had the exact same problem. He looked around the ground to see that all weapons had been removed from the room. He finally looked up to see the green, floating orb hovering above his head. He had seen this entity before on his journeys here; he called himself "Pervasive Minor." Around the monitor floated many sentinels, both the normal silver kind, some of the never-before-seen red ones, and one or two golden-armored ones. 

"I told you uncivilized _animals _to stop," said Pervasive Minor, "But you did not listen to me. You forced me to do this. These red sentinels are the 'stun' variety. We don't use them often, but we are sometimes forced to, in order to prove a point to some disobedient reclaimers, or anyone else who is with them,"

"Let us go," said Jake, "These aliens are our enemies! If we encounter them we have no choice but to fight them! They are killing machines that wish to wipe out the human race! You should tell your 'sentinels' to kill them!"

"Silence, you worthless human!" yelled 'Osoolazumme. He then turned his head towards the monitor. "You should tell your sentinels to kill _them!_ They deserve death, for they are unholy filth!!"

"Tsk tsk!" said Pervasive Minor, "We cannot have anyone kill anyone, at least not yet, because we need you to activate the ring!"

"Activate the ring?" said 'Osoolazumme, "If we are to do that, we should use this weapon against the humans! Wipe them out!"

"What?" exclaimed Buddy, "The ring is a weapon?"

"Enough joking around!" yelled an enraged monitor, "You all know what the ring does, I need not inform you on what you already know. I shall now leave you creatures to yourselves, to sort things out. Perhaps then you will work together, yes?" The monitor started to float out the small door in the wall, followed by the sentinels, "I will return!" he said.

"Wait!" yelled Ronald, "Will we always be paralyzed? Will we ever be able to walk again?"

"Of course!" said Pervasive Minor, "You will regain control of your limbs in no less than several hours. Bye for now!" And with that, the monitor and his sentinels floated out of the room. The door closed behind them.

They all remained silent for almost half an hour, until Ronald decided to speak up.

"We should think of a way to get out of here, all of us," he said, "Look, if we all worked together we could easily get out of here through the hole that the sentinels came through. Once we can move again, hopefully before the robot guys return, we could get outta here,"

"Don't talk to us, filth," said 'Osoolazumme, "I never work with humans. _Never_,"

"C'mon," said Ronald, "Sometimes enemies work best together. We can continue wanting to kill each other after we escape here,"

"If I could still move, I would wring your neck, human," said 'Osoolazumme, enraged.

"Maybe he's right, leader," yelped a Grunt.

'Osoolazumme glared at the Grunt. He immediately shut up.

Dell'Nodi could only speak a little bit of the human language, but he was able to understand most of the language when it was spoken to him. These Covenant had transmitters that allowed them to speak in the human language, which allowed them talk to the humans, and vice versa. Dell'Nodi remembered that 'Osoolazumme had given him one of these devices, so he too could be understood.

"I think we should work together," said Dell'Nodi, his speech being transmitted into English, "Then we will have a greater chance of getting out of here,"

"No!" barked 'Osoolazumme. 'Osoolazumme then looked around the room to see everyone else looking at him in frustration. He slowly realized that working with the humans may be the only way to escape alive, since they no longer had their weapons.

After a few moments of silence, 'Osoolazumme let out an growl-like sigh and said,"I agree. We will work with the humans, but only to escape,"

"You should rest until we regain the ability to walk," said Dell'Nodi, "I will remain awake, and alert you when the paralysis wares off,"

With that, they all slowly drifted to sleep, with only the leader of the Predators remaining awake.

* * *

After two hours or so, Dell'Nodi began to be able to feel his limbs again. Soon he was able to get up and walk around. He went up to the sleeping body of 'Osoolazumme and shook his shoulder, waking the Elite. 'Osoolazumme woke up with a growl, flaring his mandibles. He then looked up to see it was Dell'Nodi. The Elite then realized he could move again. 

"Let's wake the others," said Dell'Nodi.

"We must work quickly, before that oracle and its sentinels get back," said 'Osoolazumme, getting back onto his feet.

"Why don't we just go back through the tele--," said Ronald, cutting himself short after noticing that the monitor had shut down the teleporter wall, "Oh,"

All that remained of the once bright, neon teleporter wall was a rectangle metal frame, ten feet tall and six feet wide. The lights that once ran up and down the frame's sides were no longer blinking.

"Fool," said 'Osoolazumme, "Did you really think that that oracle would leave us in here with the teleporter wall still operational?" The Elite then turned towards Dell'Nodi, "Yautja, the only exit out of here that I can see is that small door in the wall, the one the sentinels came through,"

"But it is closed," said Dell'Nodi, "And it far too high up for us to reach. It is easily twenty feet high,"

"We could stand on each others shoulders," suggested Jake.

"What's the ponit?" whined Ronald, "Even if we do make it out of this room, we don't have a radio anymore. They took the radio too, right?"

"Actually, no!" said Jake, "I have the radio in my pocket! They must not have noticed it, or left it because it's not a weapon,"

"Then there's still hope," said Ronald.

They talked with each other, then decided that the two tallest "people" were to stand on each other's shoulders, and one of the humans was to climb to the top of them and try to open the small door.

'Osoolazumme climbed onto Dell'Nodi's shoulders. It took a while, but they eventually managed. Then Jake climbed up both of the large alien soldiers' shoulders, and soon was looking right at the small door. Jake tried with all his might to pull the metal covering off the hole, but it seemed he couldn't. Eventually, to his surprise, the door start to creek open. With a little more effort, it did so.

"Okay," said Jake, sweat running down his forehead, "It's open,"

"Try to climb in," yelled Sergeant Buddy from below.

He climbed in. When he crawled into the passage, he had expected it to be as narrow as the hole. It wasn't, it widened out from the three-foot wide hole to an 8-foot wide passage.

Dell'Nodi pushed 'Osoolazumme higher so he could reach the hole. He tried to enter through the hole. There was a problem. His large Elite body couldn't fit.

"I cannot fit," growled 'Osoolazumme, his mandibles flared out, his deep Elite voice dooming. He jumped down from Dell'Nodi's shoulders. "What are we to do now?" he asked.

Suddenly, Buddy realized something. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a fragmentation grenade. "I always keep a spare in my pocket," said the Sarge, "They must not have realized I had an extra,"

"What can one grenade do?" asked 'Osoolazumme.

"I hope it has enough power to blow the hole a little larger so you guys can fit," Buddy said, "Hey, Jake! Go further into the tunnels. In fact, as far as you can go. I'm gonna throw a frag into that hole,"

Jake was soon out of sight.

Buddy pulled the pin and threw. The grenade flew through the air and went right into the hole. A few seconds later, there was a large explosion. Debris and metal rubble flew everywhere. The marines and Covenant ducked to avoid the sharp flying shrapnel.

When the smoke cleared, they could see the hole was significantly larger; plenty big enough for a Covenant Elite or Predator to fit through. They all climbed up, the taller ones helping the smaller ones reach.

When they were all in the started to venture down the dark passageway. They all hoped thay didn't encounter any xenomorphs or Flood; without their weapons they would be dead meat. The tunnel went on for a while, not changing much as they went on, with only a few turns.

'Osoolazumme looked at the humans. He wanted to kill them now, with his bare hands. He didn't care if they helped him escape, they were humans and he still wanted them dead. He stopped himself, shaking his head clear of such thoughts. He promised to himself to let the humans go once they escaped, and if he ever saw them again, nothing would hold him back from destroying them.

Suddenly the tunnel turned into a large, winding staircase. They all looked at each other, then continued down the winding stairs.

When they reached the bottom, they found themselves in a medium-sized, sphere-shaped room. There was only one object in the room; a fist-sized, square-shaped item with glowing Forerunner symbols written all over it. The object floated in the middle of the room, held aloft by a sort of gravity stream that ran from the floor to the ceiling.

"That, my friend, is what you came here for," Dell'Nodi said to 'Osoolazumme, "That is the artifact,"

* * *

**Yeah, that chapter was a little boring, being that the only action was at the beginning. But****, whatever right? There will be more action next chapter. Don't forget to check out the "special edition" version of my story, and tell me what you think, if it is better or if it is worse, etc. Until next time, bye!**


	14. The Artifact

**Chapter 14**

'Osoolazumme slowly walked towards the artifact. He reached out and felt it. He immediately pulled his finger back; the surface of the cube-shaped artifact was burning hot!

"The artifact is too hot to touch!" exclamed 'Osoolazumme.

"It is, at first," said Dell'Nodi, "But it will start to cool down if it is touched by an intelligent creature. Try again,"

Reluctantly, 'Osoolazumme reached for the artifact again. This time it was actually cool to the touch. He grabbed the object and pulled it out of the artificial gravity stream it was floating in.

He looked at the ancient relic that he now had in his hands. _The Prophets will be very pleased,_ he thought. The Forerunner hieroglyphics written on the artifact started to glow brighter now.

'Osoolazumme turned towards the humans. "Get out. NOW!" he growled, his Elite voice booming through the sphere-shaped chamber.

The human named Jake was about to say something, but 'Osoolazumme growled and threatened the human with his fist. The humans bolted out through another dark passageway, and soon were out of sight.

'Osoolazumme then turned his attention towards the mysterious artifact. For a split second, the object seemed to produce such an aura of mystery that 'Osoolazumme felt like he was in a trance. He soon shook his head clear of this. He searched the object for a possible way to activate it and see how the thing worked. If what the Prophets speculated was true, this artifact is supposed to be a weapon.

"Do you know how to activate this artifact's weapon system?" 'Osoolazumme asked Dell'Nodi.

"I do not," said the Yautja, "I know nothing of how the object works. I only know a small amount about the object at all, and only from writings carved on walls," Then, the Predator stopped, as if suddenly realizing something. "Put the artifact back!" he yelled suddenly.

"What?" exclamined 'Osoolazumme, "I will not! We have traveled all the way here, across many solar systems, and I will not leave without the artifact!!"

"You fool!!" hissed Dell'Nodi, "The ones who made that artifact, the ones you call 'the Forerunners', would not have left an object like that out in the open, so easy to steal. You've probably activated some sort of trap by--,"

The Predator was cut off by the sound of the four doorways that led out of the chamber suddenly slamming shut. Then the floor under them started to split apart. The Covenant soldiers and Predators quickly stepped aside of growing cracks in the ground beneath them. As the cracks grew wider, they could see that under the fractured floor molten lava bubbled and hissed.

"What are we going to do?" asked a worried Gur'ge, trembling in fear as he stood on a small patch of floor, surrounded on all sides by large, magma-filled cracks.

"We can make it," said 'Osoolazumme, "We will jump over the cracks to reach the doors,"

"Then what?" asked an Elite, "The doors are locked shut. Nothing is going to make them budge,"

'Osoolazumme looked around the room for something that could possibly open the doors. Above one of the doors was a holographic panel, much like many of the other ones seen throughout the temple. 'Osoolazumme thought he could probably reach it, but he wasn't sure if it was the right panel that activated the doors.

Suddenly, three large pedestals rose from the center of the room, where the gravity lift used to hold the artifact was, where the cracks hadn't reached. Each pedestal held a large, leathery xenomorph egg. The orange light produced by the molten lava below reflected through the eggs, clearly showing the writhing parasites each one held.

Dell'Nodi cursed in the yautja language.

The first of the eggs slowly began to open. Everyone looked at it in horror. The spider-like appendages of the facehugger crawled over the petal-like lips of the egg. It was about to jump.

"Get back!" yelled 'Osoolazumme. They all stepped back as far away as possible from the egg.

The parasite was motionless for a minute, as if it was having a hard time choosing which face to attack. When it finally jumped, it was straight at Dell'Nodi's face.

Dell'Nodi caught the facehugger mid-jump with his bare hands. The parasite was very strong for its size. It thrashed and twitched, its long tail whipping back and forth, its long, tube-like proboscis trying to reach the Predator's face. 'Osoolazumme wanted to help the yautja, but interference might not be what the warrior wanted, the Elite realized. Plus, if he got too close he might cause another egg to open.

"'Osoolazumme, go over to the panel, above the door!" yelled Dell'Nodi as the facehugger's tail wrapped around his arm, "Activate it! It should open these other doors!"

_Just as I thought, _'Osoolazumme thought as he jumped over the cracks towards the the holographic panel. He looked back for a second just in time to see another of the three eggs start to slowly open. They didn't have much time.

When he reached the panel he quickly reached up and touched it with his three-fingered hand. The holo panel blinked red. That meant that he had touched it wrong. He tried again. It blinked red again.

"Hurry up!!" bellowed Dell'Nodi as the parasite's proboscis came closer to his face.

'Osoolazumme looked back again. The other facehugger had crawled out of its egg and was now hopping over the cracks in the floor, slowly getting closer to him.

'Osoolazumme then looked down at the artifact that he still held in his hand. He slowly felt the Forerunner hieroglyphics etched onto its side. Suddenly the cube started to glow bright blue. In his surprise 'Osoolazumme held the object out farther from his body. Then a large, powerful, blue beam of super-heated plasma many times more powerful than any of the plasma used by the Covenant shot from the front of the object. The heat was so intense that it instantly started to cause 'Osoolazumme's hands to blister and burn, and he dropped the object with a howl of pain. The artifact fell to the ground, where it continued to spew out the stream of plasma. The plasma continued for about thirty seconds before it stopped, leaving a huge, smoking hole with melted metal dripping from it in the wall in front of 'Osoolazumme.

Most of them looked in astonishment at the plasma hole, but Dell'Nodi was still too busy fighting off the facehugger, which had its long, crab-like "fingers" around Dell'Nodi's helmet, and its long tail tightly wrapped around the Predator's arm, cutting off circulation. But soon Dell'Nodi was able to rip the tail of the parasite off his arm and throw it aside, burning his arm slightly in the process, and then he pulled the facehugger's fingers off his face and threw its body down one of the cracks into the molten lava. The parasite let out a loud, high scream as its body bubbled, sizzled, and finally disintegrated in the molten rock.

'Osoolazumme was on his knees in agony. His hands were covered in third-degree burns; the flesh was charred and burnt and, in some places, bubbling and sizzling. Through his pain he slowly got to his feet. The facehugger that had been crawling towards him before was now a few feet away from him. 'Osoolazumme kicked the little parasite into one of the cracks with his hoof-like foot. 'Osoolazumme could hear it let out a loud screech before it burned up and died like the other one.

Dell'Nodi jumped over the cracks to 'Osoolazumme. He looked at the Elite's burnt hands. He reached into his belt and pulled out his medikit. He pressed a button and kit opened. It was filled with all kinds of surgical blades, medicine dispensers, and items used to cauterise limbs. "Let me see your hands," the Predator hissed. Reluctantly, 'Osoolazumme held out his hands.

Dell'Nodi took out a bag filled with a dark solid substance and crushed it with his hands into a powder. He gently sprinkled the substance over 'Osoolazumme's hands. It sizzled, and 'Osoolazumme growled loudly in pain. "It will heal," Dell'Nodi hissed. The Predator picked up his naginata and walked towards the hole the artifact had made. He could clearly see the plasma had burned through over a thousand of the temple's wall, through layers of the very solid Forerunner alloy.

"Let's get out of here," said 'Osoolazumme, slowly getting to his feet.

* * *

Pervasive Minor floated into the room he had left the reclaimers and the intrusive extraterrestrials that had invaded the temple, followed by a dozen sentinels. He was confident that they had made an agreement to help him activate Installation 04. 

When the monitor came in to see that the room was empty, he was not happy. He looked up to see that they had escaped by somehow blowing open one of the openings to the temple's vent system often used by the sentinels to move through the structure. He was very upset, he cursed himself for not closing off the ventalation holes. But he didn't lose his cool.

"This is very unfortunate," said Pervasive Minor, "But, a problem easily solved," He turned around to face the sentinels. "Find them," he said, "Kill all of those invasive alien 'warriors.' They should not be a problem when unarmed. Bring back at least one reclaimer back alive, preferably more. I will be waiting,"

The sentinels floated off, each one going down a different pathway of the maze-like temple.


	15. Weaponless

**Because I didn't do this in earlier chapters, I might as well do it now: I don't own anything Alien, Predator, AvP, or Halo, except for the characters I made up for this work of fiction. The Alien and Predator franchises belong to 20th Century Fox, and the Halo franchise belongs to Bungie and Microsoft. **

**Note for younger readers: This chapter contains some strong language. **

* * *

**Chapter 15**

Jake, Ronald, Buddy and Kelly jogged away until they were out of sight of the Covenant and those other alien beings.

Buddy stopped, putting his hand in the air to tell the others to do the same. He wiped the sweat from his brow and turned towards the others. "Okay, let's stop, they aren't following us," he said.

"We still have the radio," Jake said, showing a weak smile, "We'll make it out,"

"What are we gonna do till then, huh?" said Ronald, gritting his teeth, "Are we just gonna sit down and wait for those monsters to rip us apart? Without our weapons, we're screwed,"

"It isn't over yet," Jake responded, "Let's use the radio and try to make contact with humanity,"

"There isn't civilazation for lightyears . . ." stated Ronald.

"Of course, but there are UNSC forces stationed on that ringworld," Jake said, "We could probably contact another marine, hopefully a high-ranking officer or someone who is with one, and ask for a rescue team,"

"What would they send to resuce us?" asked Sergeant Buddy, "A Pelican? A Pelican is a _dropship,_ used on the field for transporting soldiers into battle, they wouldn't send one of those to pick up a small group of marines stranded on some moon,"

"Let's hope they have a Longsword," said Jake.

Before anything else could be said, a low hiss filled the dusty air. The marines turned their heads just in time to see the long, segmented tail of a xenomorph slither into a large crevice.

"Let's go," said Buddy. They all vigourously agreed and moved down the corridor as fast as they could, disappearing into darkness.

* * *

'Osoolazumme stepped through the hole he just made in the wall with the sacred artifact. The smoke still bellowed from front side of the cube-shaped object. 

"This sacred relic shall be the downfall of humanity," laughed the Elite, "The Prophets will be very pleased with me,"

Dell'Nodi shook his head. "If only your race had a sense of honor," the Predator murmered under his breath in his own language.

Even if 'Osoolazumme could have understood what Dell'Nodi had said, he wouldn't have heard him because he was too busy ranting on about how great he was for discovering the artifact.

"You do realize that that plasma blast probably alterted every_ Kiande Amedha_ within a mile of our position," growled the Predator Kit'noto, who started to walk towards 'Osoolazumme, balling his clawed hand into a fist and shaking it at the Elite.

Dell'Nodi hissed and motioned Kit'Noto to back down with a wave of his clawed hand. The younger hunter stepped back, his head hung low.

"Kit'Noto is right, however," Dell'Nodi said to 'Osoolazumme, "We should leave this place,"

As if on que, the hisses of dozens of the xenomorphic aliens sounded, all together at once, from all directions. Warriors and Drones revealed themeselves, their slime-coated exoskeletons glistening in the darkness.

They all stood in horror, ready for anything. Yet, the aliens didn't attack.

Suddenly the ground in front of them indented upwards. Something was trying to bash up through the floor. The ground cracked and a large, black clawed hand punched its way through. The xenomorphs stood back, giving room for whatever was making its way out.

Another bash and the ground cracked upwards, revealing the large extended crest of the Queen Alien's head. She howled so high pitched that all the Covenant covered their ears in pain. The Predators, on the other hand, were used to the noise and instead let out furious, deep roars of challenge towards the giant beast.

The Queen pulled the rest of her body free. Her abdomen had several deep slashes and gashes from her previous engagement with the swarm of Flood.

Dell'Nodi continued to roar at the towering Queen, who hissed in response.

"What are you doing?" 'Osoolazumme yelled at the Predator, "Are you insane?"

"He knows what he's doing," said Kit'Noto, "He's distracting her. We should go now,"

"And leave him?"

"He'll make it, trust me,"

The others rushed off quickly, darting between the legs of the Alien Queen. She turned her head and hissed at them, giving Dell'Nodi just enough time to duck and roll away from the range of the Queen's grasp.

They ran as fast as they could down the nearest passage, the sound of the claws of more than a hundred toothed bugs furiously scraping at the ground coming closer each second.

* * *

"I don't think this was a good idea," said Kelly, nervously, trying to find her way through the almost completely pitch black corridors, "These bugs thrive on darkness; they can probably see us now!" 

"It's okay," said Jake, not completely sure what he was saying was true, "I don't think there are any arou--"

Jake was cut off by a short barking sound. "Shit!" he could hear Buddy yell in the darkness. The Sergeant shined his slowly fading flashlight down at the ground, to reveal a three-foot chestburster lying there, coiled up like a cobra, ready to strike.

Buddy lifted his boot, about the squash the young xenomorph, but the creature was too quick. It lashed out, clamping its jaws around the Sergeant's foot. Buddy screamed in pain as the chestburster's needle-sharp teeth pierced through his boot and into his flesh.

In his pain and surprise, Buddy dropped the flashlight. Everyone was soon plunged into darkness. Jake quickly searched his pockets and pack for another flashlight. Buddy's screams drowned out all other noise in the dark as confused marines ran around aimlessly.

Jake eventually found a working flashlight. He quickly turned it on, shining it towards Buddy's boot. The little bastard had firmly wedged its jaws around the boot and streams of the Sergeant's blood oozed from between its teeth.

Jake quickly grabbed for his pistol, but he had forgotten they had no weapons. He cursed, and searched for something else to use. He soon found a pair of surgical pliers. He tried to grab the tail of the chestburster, but the thrashing, snake-like body made it hard for the marine to get a grip. When he did finally get ahold of it, he stabbed the creature rapidly with the pliers. The creature screeched, then curled up into a ball and died.

Jake dropped the pliers, which were dissolving from the acid blood, and quickly went over to Buddy. His foot was covered in blood. "Dammit!" the Sergeant said through clenched teeth.

"Get a first-aid kit!" Jake yelled. Kelly quickly pulled out a pocket-sized bangdage kit, and ran over to Jake and Buddy. She pulled off Buddy's boot to reveal a grisly sight; Buddy's foot was soaked in blood, and some of his tendons were exposed. She quickly wrapped the bandage around the marine's foot, which quickly turned from white to red.

"Good," said Kelly, "That should help for a while, but you might want to ditch the boot," Kelly looked at the boot, covered in blood with some acid burns covering it as well.

Jake then suddenly backed up against the wall. He felt something on his back. He slowly turned around, his flashlight in front of him, ready for whatever lied behind him. What he found certainly made him jump. Hanging from the wall was a human skeleton, obviously very old; it looked like it had been there for hundreds of years. The chest of the unfortunate person was boken outwards. Jake knew very little about the "xenomorph" creatures that they were encountering; they were much rarer now, and had been thought to be extinct in reason years, but he had read about them in textbooks; he knew how they reproduced.

"Poor guy," Jake said. Then he looked closer at the corpse. He was still wearing his clothes, in fact, his clothes looked like they were a uniform. He brushed the dust off the collar of the ancient uniform, to reveal it was the outfit of a marine. A badge on his shoulder had the words "USCM" stitched on it, along with a picture of an eagle.

"This guy was a marine, just like us," said Jake. He turned his flashlight upwards, to reveal the wall was covered with hundreds, if not thousands, of ancient skeletons. In fact, the entire wall consisted entirely of ancient skeletal remains, both extraterrestrial and human, or at least it seemed that way, because no part of the wall was visible through the skeletons. All the skeletons, from what Jake could see, had suffered the same fate; they had been a host to a bug, judging from their open ribcages.

"Damn" said Buddy, "That's fucking creepy,"

"The fact that a human skeleton is here means that people have been here before," said Kelly.

"Yeah," said Jake, "Humans have been here before. But nobody knows about this place because obviously, nobody ever made it off here alive,"

Jake then noticed the dead marine was holding a weapon. He quickly grabbed it, tearing the skeleton's arm off in the process. He snapped off the skeletal arm and blew the dust off the rifle. It was an old, outdated model. Jake recognized the weapon; it was an M41 Pulse Rifle, a gun that hadn't been the standard issue rifle since the 2200's.

"Does it still work?" asked Ronald.

"Let's see," said Jake, as he reached into the skeleton Marine's vest pocket and pulled out some ammo cartriges, and slapped them into the rifle. He aimed the rifle at the skeleton of a strange four-legged (yet humanoid) creature, and pulled the trigger.

At first, nothing. He tapped the trigger agian, and this time a quick burst of bullets shot quickly out of the rifle, blasting the four-legged skeleton into dust.

"It works," said Jake with a smile, "but there's only one,"

A high pitched shriek was heard in the distance.

"Get behind me," said Jake. They complied.

* * *

The Covenant warriors quickly ran down the passageway, with the three Predators following closely behind. They could see the dark shapes quickly descending upon them; a large mass of claws, teeth, and Metallo-silicate exoskeleton. 

Dell'Nodi picked up speed, his long dreadlocks flowing behind his sleek humanoid-alien form. He quickly ran past the others, hardly showing any signs of becoming tired. He was the first to see the large door up ahead. It was closed, but a holographic panel was standing in front of it. He picked up more speed.

He quickly came to a stop in front of the panel. He quickly scrolled his claws across the panel. It blinked red. He pressed the panel again in a different fashion. It blinked red again. He tried several more times, but it came up with the same result. He roared loudly in fury as he tapped the panel another time. He looked over his shoulder to see the other yautja and the Covenant close behind him, followed by the mass of _Kiande Amedha_ behind them. He quickly tapped the panel again. This time it glowed green and the doors opened.

"Come fast!" Dell'Nodi yelled. The others quickly caught up, and went through the door.

Just as everyone got behind the doors, they started to close. The alien that had been at the head of the mass stuck its arm between the closing doors, only to have its appendage severed as it closed. A few seconds passed by, then a large THUMP was heard as the swarm of aliens smashed into the closed doors, indenting the doorway, made of a tough Forerunner alloy, outward almost three feet.

They all stepped back. The aliens smashed at the doorway again, but it still held. After one more try, they gave up. Dell'Nodi could hear their hisses slowly fade as they crawled away.

They all turned around to see, to their surprise, another being in the same room. The figure had its back turned to the others, but they instantly recognized that the figure was a yautja; its long dreadlocks and armor gave it away.

"It is Bat'ana!" exclaimed Dell'Nodi. He was about to rushed over a embrace the fellow Predator, but stopped suddenly. "Something isn't right,"

Bat'ana swiftly spun around. He had a large tentacle protruding from his chest and right arm. His skin was no longer yellowish; it had turned a moldy olive green coloration. The flesh on his face, which no longer had a mask on it, was falling off, exposing bone.

Bat'ana was a Flood.

"Noo!" yelled Dell'Nodi as Bat'ana let out a furious howl and jumped towards his former master.

Dell'Nodi grabbed Bat'ana by the neck when he was within arms length away. The Flood-infected Predator thrashed around and whipped its arm around as Dell'Nodi tightened his grip around the now useless throat of the Combat Form that used to be his student. "What have they done to you?" Dell'Nodi uttered in the Yautja language. He then punched his fist through the moldy flesh of the Flood, and ripped the Infection Form out of Bat'ana's body with his bare hands.

He crushed the Infection Form and threw Bat'ana's now lifeless body on the floor. He looked at Bat'ana's body on the ground. He knelt down and pulled the plasmacaster off the body's shoulder. He pulled a slimy green substance off the surface of the cannon, and inspected it to see if it was broken or not. He then attached it to his shoulder, and with a click it went into place.

Five more Combat Forms suddenly broke down the door on the opposite side of the room. Dell'Nodi saw this as a good oppertunity to see if Bat'ana's plasmacaster still worked. He then aimed for the chest region of the nearest Combat Form as it charged towards him, its arms flailing. The Flood parasites inside the dead corpses were not warm-blooded, so the parasite inside the Combat Form showed up as green on his helmet's vision. Three red lines formed around the area of the chest the infection form was housed.

A blue flash of plasma shot out of the plasmacaster, fatally hitting the Flood-infected corpse.

The four remaining Flood leaped and crawled towards the Predator.

Dell'Nodi shot down three of them before they got within ten feet, but the last remaining one managed to get past the firing plasma, and jumped straight towards Dell'Nodi.

Dell'Nodi grabbed the Combat Form mid-jump, and with great strength broke the corpse in half over his knee. He then threw the body onto the ground and stomped the corpse into a green gory mass.

"Let's go," hissed Dell'Nodi towards the others.


End file.
